Beginning June 20 New York’s fifth-tallest peak takes on a new role as the state’s highest museum exhibition. Flora, fauna, geology, watersheds, weather and human impacts on the landscape are vividly depicted in stations along trails, in the mountain’s tunnel and elevator and on the rocky top itself.

Riding in a gondola up the slopes you can learn about animal athletes—how a bat senses the surroundings like a hockey goalie or how a downhill skier maneuvers like a kestrel—in videos you see by scanning a QR code with your smartphone. In the castle at the end of the Veterans’ Memorial Highway there are displays and a film about the endangered Bicknell’s thrush, which breeds at high elevations. Inside the tunnel that leads to the elevator (Whiteface’s summit is accessible for those who can climb a step or two) there are interpretive panels describing just how deep inside the mountain you are. At the summit and the research roundhouse you can learn about the extreme weather through banners emblazoned with surprising facts, a wall showing 280,000 images, real-time forecast displays and a funnel-shape cloud collector that monitors water droplets. Whiteface is an important site for studying acid precipitation because it is frequently cloaked in clouds.

The exhibit can provide a full day of exploring on your own or you can join a field trip led by experts. Guided hikes start June 22 with a bird walk, a geology session on August 21 and hands-on programs in climate studies, alpine flora and other topics.

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on Sunday, June 16th, 2013 at 8:49 am and is filed under Blogs, Wild Life.
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